Avatar director James Cameron says the movie's sequels will feature the same main villain.

The 62-year-old filmmaker said in the September issue of Empire that Stephen Lang "just gets better" as Colonel Miles Quaritch in Avatar 2 and its sequels.

"The interesting conceit of the Avatar sequels is it's pretty much the same characters," Cameron told the magazine. "There are new characters and a lot of new settings and creatures, so I'm taking characters you know and putting them in unfamiliar places and moving them on this greater journey. But it's not a whole bunch of new characters every time."

"There's not a new villain every time, which is interesting," he added. "Same guy. Same [expletive] throughout all four movies. He is so good and he just gets better. I know Stephen Lang is gonna knock this out of the park."

Lang's character appeared to die at the end of Avatar, which opened in theaters in 2009. The 63-year-old actor was confirmed to return in 2013, and discussed the sequels in an interview with Ain't It Cool News in August 2016.

"Well, how am I still in them? I guess I would just quote Jim Cameron on that when he's asked that and he leans forward in that intimidating way and says, 'Hey. It's science fiction,'" Lang said of his character's return. "There's the answer to that."

"We're getting there," he added of the film's progress. "It's not like the work hasn't been going on. The design, the production design, the various worlds, and creatures and environments, that's all being worked on."

Avatar 2 opens in theaters in December 2020, and will be followed by Avatar 3, Avatar 4 and Avatar 5. Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver will return as Jake Sully, Neytiri and Dr. Grace Augustine.